How long does it take to go from HS graduation to Iraq?

[gulliver]

What is the length of time it takes a new American high school graduate who signs up for the Army or Marines to end up in Iraq (or Afghanistan)? Is it weeks, months, or years?

The reason I ask is that we heard from Bush that the Iraqi soldiers are in various phases of their training progress. We have heard that there are 160,000 of them, but only a pitiable few thousand participate in combat operations. What is taking the Iraqis so long to get trained? These timelines and numbers are just not adding up.

Are these Iraqis really anxious to do all of this fighting? What's their incentive to perform if they get out of combat by being incompetent. Maybe we can't set a timetable because it would cause a mass exodus from the Iraqi armed forces. Maybe they are mainly just staying to collect their checks (and Bush is fine with that as long as he can count them as Iraqi soldiers). What's the deadline on these Iraqi soldiers really starting to put their lives on the line?

Don't tell me an American high school graduate can be in Iraq with a rifle six months after he gets his diploma, but it takes a year and a half for Iraqis to do it.

[still_one]

1. you have just said it better than anyone

[punpirate]

2. It can actually be less...

... than six months. Eight weeks' basic training, eight to twelve weeks' advanced infantry training, maybe add in a couple of weeks' leave, and they could find themselves on a bird.

This is the same routine as in Vietnam--with enough time, the South Vietnamese government and its troops could defend themselves--except that a great many of them really didn't see the point in doing so. I suspect it's the same routine in Iraq--many, many divided loyalties.

Since the people behind this war were never close enough to Vietnam to have some personal need to understand it, they made many of the same mistakes in Iraq, for even more evil purposes.

[Chan790]

3. Ya know...

It takes them 6 months just to train the Iraqi soldiers not to run away from gunfire and men with sticks. It's like training a disobedient dog.

[lostnfound]

4. A darn good question. And Iraqis don't even need language training..

or cultural exposure..or geography familiarization. Not that our recruits are likely getting much of that either.

[wovenpaint]

5. Well, it took my friend's son

from June 04 to February 05. He joined the Marines as a junior in HS and went right from graduation DAY to basic training.

He has been deployed to Fallujeh :scared:

We worry about him every day...

[gulliver]

8. I have a friend whose son joined the Marines a few years back.

I don't keep in touch with them any more, but I think the kid might very well be in Iraq. I don't see how he could have avoided it. I haven't heard any bad news, so I guess that's most likely good news. He was a cute little kid when I knew him. I hope your friends son stays safe and whole.

[wovenpaint]

9. Thank you

me, too.

I hope your "cute little kid" is ok also!

[LizW]

10. My friend's son headed off for basic

just hours after HS graduation. She was devastated.

Fortunately, he has not been sent to Iraq yet. He was home for a while this spring, but recently left for Camp Lejeune.

[cynatnite]

6. It does take a while

For one thing they have limited resources when it comes to training and those Iraqis have to be rotated through for a period of probably around 6-12 weeks. That's just basic training. How to handle a weapon, etc.

It's more training to do things such as carrying out operations. What I've seen is that most of these guys are still under the supervision of the US military and is rarely without.

There is a high unemployment rate and insurgents do attack those working with the US, too. I've also heard since our troops don't know who the enemy is, they don't trust these guys much at all.

I do think that all of this doesn't make it a very favorable atmosphere for anyone and it's possible there has been a lot of setback in the training.

I'm not surprised by how slow it is to get an Iraqi force going.

[Tommymac]

7. They are not being trained to fight insurgents...

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/06/17/facing_factsin_iraq/

A former Pentagon official, journalist, and president of the Council on Foreign Relations, Leslie Gelb, a man with considerable political and military knowledge, came back from a fact-finding trip in Iraq talking about the ''gap between those who work there, who were really careful of every word they uttered of prediction or analysis, and the expansive, sometimes, I think, totally unrealistic optimism you hear from people back in Washington."

In a report to the council, Gelb was scathing about America efforts to train an Iraqi army. ''If you ask any Iraqi leader, they will tell you these people can't fight. They just aren't trained. And yet we're cranking them out like rabbits." As for plans to train a 10 division Iraqi army by next year, Gelb was scathing. ''It became very apparent to me that these 10 divisions were to fight some future war against Iran. It had nothing to do, nothing to do," with taking Iraq over from the Americans and fighting the insurgents.